As protesters nationwide demand a big hike in the minimum wage and President Obama issues an executive order to substantially boost low-level pay for federal contract workers, a Macomb County effort to require a “living wage” for workers has become dormant.

Macomb County was ahead of the curve – at least by Michigan standards – in 2006 when the Board of Commissioners adopted a living wage ordinance that required contract workers to receive pay significantly above the minimum wage.

The policy mandated that companies that do business with the county must pay their workers a minimum of 125 percent of the poverty level, which was $9.59 an hour in 2006. For those without health insurance benefits, the living wage was set at $12.09 hourly. The current figures are $11.98 an hour and $14.98, respectively.

Supporters of the new rules said they would ensure that no business could undercut its competitors and win a county contract by paying poverty wages to its lowest-level workers – janitors, secretaries, delivery people.

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Opponents in the business community said the new mandate would kill jobs and discourage companies from locating in Macomb County.

In reality, eight years later, the impact of the pay requirement is nearly undetectable.

The sector that was dramatically affected -- nonprofit mental health providers who ran group homes or other facilities for the developmentally disabled and mentally ill -- sought waivers from the new rules. They argued that their revenues were dictated by Medicaid reimbursements and state allocations, so their single-digit hourly pay for caregivers could not be altered.

In the end, they gained an exemption for all 250 mental health care providers in the county – an exception that continues on a long-term basis. Future extensions of the waivers will lie in the hands of the Community Mental Health Board.

Meanwhile, no other contractors have raised the issue and officials assume that the minimum pay ordinance have not affected any of the companies that the county does business with.

“It’s still in force but I don’t think we have any examples” of other contractors who have been affected by the living wage rules, said Jill Smith, a county attorney.

Because Macomb County contains numerous unionized companies and county government construction projects require the prevailing union-scale wages for workers, the living wage ordinance has become largely irrelevant.

But county Commissioner Fred Miller, who pushed for living wage language in the county’s new purchasing ordinance that impacts suppliers, said it’s important to keep a floor on minimum pay.

“It’s kind of like insurance, you have it but you hope you won’t need it,” said Miller, a Mount Clemens Democrat. “It’s a statement of our values and it shows that we believe in the dignity of work.”

While the county’s living wage stands at $11.98 hourly, researchers at the Massachusetts of Technology assert that a pay rate that meets “minimum living standards” would be substantially higher. MIT calculated the cost of basic expenses, such as food, housing, medical services and child care, in communities across the nation and concluded that in Macomb County, an hourly wage of $22.80 is necessary for a single parent with two children to avoid financial stress.

In comparison, the poverty level for that family of three is $10.60 an hour, and the Michigan minimum wage is $7.40 hourly.

More than 100 communities across the nation have adopted living wage laws. In Michigan, 13 cities have gone that route, including Warren and Eastpointe, and Macomb is one of five counties that have pay requirements.

The Warren ordinance only applies to service contractors who are paid more than $50,000. In contrast, the Eastpointe ordinance covers contractors and businesses that receive tax breaks or other economic development assistance from the city.

About a decade ago the living wage movement seemed to be gaining momentum but when the Great Recession hit in 2008-09, the issue faded. Starting in 2013, the idea of significantly raising the minimum wage – as high as $15 an hour -- took hold and the two issues have now melded together.

John Philo, legal director of the Sugar Law Center at Wayne State University, has studied labor laws across Michigan. He said there has been “some shift toward getting the minimum wage up to the living wage rate.”

Foes have tried for more than a decade to ban living wages in Michigan because they say the pay mandates chase away companies that would otherwise provide new jobs. One attempt almost succeeded in 2003 when the Legislature passed a ban but Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed it.

Philo said a 2009 Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that struck down Detroit’s living wage law – in a legal opinion that some labor lawyers question – has had a “chilling effect” on the potential expansion of living wage ordinances to more Michigan cities.

For more information on Macomb County’s living wage and cost of living, log on to http://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/26099.